Radiator-assembling machine.



W. DIETZ. RADIATOR ASSEMBLING MACHINE.

APPLIOATIQN FILED APR. 2. 1909. 924y 1 24o Patented Apr. 23, 1912.

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Patented Apr.23,1912.

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W. DIETZ. RADIATOR ASSEMBLING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED APB.. 2. 1909.

Patented Apr. 23, 1912.

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WILLIAM DIETZ, 0F CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO MCCOR-D COMPANY, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN, A CORPORATION 0F MANUFACTURING MAINE.

' RADIATOR-ASSEMBLING MACHINE.

Specicatio of Letters Patent.

Patented Apr. 23, 1912.

T c all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM DIETZ, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in t-he county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Radiator-Assemblingv Machines, of which the following is a specication, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawing.

My invention relates to radiator assembling machines, and is especially designed to assemble the tubes and insor plates of heaters, condensers, radiators, and other tubular devices.

The special object of the invention is to provide a new and improved machine for easily and quickly assembling in one operation all the tubes and tins or plates of devices of the character above noted and which provides permanence and solidity of the assembled parts. l

Another object is to provide a machine of this general character having means whereby successive sets of tubes and fins may be placed in and removed from the machine in banks or blocks.

Other objects will be apparent from the accompanying disclosure.

The invention consists in the matters hereinafter described and then pointed out in the appended claims.

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a plan view of an apparatus embodying my invention, parts being broken away for purposes of illustration; Fig. 2 is alongitudinal central sectional view through the parts of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the device of Fig. l; Fig. 4 is a view showing a front elevation of a fin or plate which may be employed; Fig. 5 is an end view of the iin shown in Fig. 4; Fig. 6is a view of a radiator tube which may be employed; Fig. 7 is a detail view showing a port-ion of the tube spindles with tubes thereon, and a portion of the adjacent iin-frame with fincombs and ns; Fig. 8 is a detail view on the line 8-8 of Fig. 7, some of the parts being broken away for purposes of illustration, and Fig. 9 is a detail sectional view showing a set of tubes and fins assembled.

The several parts of the machine are mounted upon a suitable support such as a bed-plate which in the present form 'consists of an opposite pair of angle plates having horizontal and vertical webs 10 and 11 is provided with rollers vadapted to support it in movable relation suitably connected at one end by a crosspiece 12 and at the other end adapted to be attached to a fin-frame as hereinafter described.

The bed-plate provides bearings at the end adjacentthe cross-piece for a drive shaft 13 which may be rotated from any suitable motor or source of power. The shaft 13 is provided with a worm 14 in position to engage a worm-wheel 15 located in a yoke 16 at approximately the center of the cross-piece 12, and the worm-wheel 15 is provided withka central bore having a screw thread adapted to engage a correspondingly threaded endless-screw portion of a rod 17, whereby the worm-wheel receives motion from the shaft 13 and imparts it to the rod to move the latter back and forth. The inner end of the rod 17 is rigidly connected with a tube-support such as a truck or carriage 18- which eX- tends across the width of the bed-plate and 19 at each end upon the horizontal webs 10 of the angle 'pieces of the bed-plate.

The truck or carriage 18 carries a series of spindles 20 arranged and disposed upon the front `side thereof in number and contour corresponding with the number and arrangement of radiator tubes which it is desired to assemble with their fins or plates. In the arrangement shown in Fig. 1, I provide four banks or rows of these spindles, each bank or row comprising twenty spindles and preferably so arranged that the corresponding spindles of each bank will lie in the same vertical plane; it is of Y course to be understood that the number and disposition of these spindles may be varied according to the pattern or design in which it is desired to assemble or mount the tubes in the radiator. In the preferred form of construction I preferably provide means for using the same truck or carriage with successive sets of spindles, and for thisv purpose I mount the spindles upon a support or carrier 21 which may be detachably engaged with the truck or carriage, The spindle carrier may be connected to the truck or carriage by any suitable means and for this purpose I have shown the carrier provided with a series of undercut vertical webs 22 adapted to detachably engage the correspondingly undery 30 machine.

cut grooves on the front'face of the truck. In practice the spindles are provided with radiator tubes 23, preferably of brass, the spindles being suitably spaced apart for this 5 purpose and sustaining the tubes against uckling or bending during the assembling operation.

At the end of the bed-plate opposite the cross-piece 12, I provide a lin-frame com- -prising a bottom 24 and connected vertical side pieces 25, the latter being secured to the vertical portions of the bed-plate by suitable bolts 26, and the forlner secured to a bench or table (not shown) by means of the wings or ears 27.

The lin-frame is adapted to hold the finsl or plates in posit-ion while they are being assembled upon the tubes 23, and in the preferred embodiment of my invention I provide a removable lin-holder which may be detachably supported upon this frame, it being understood that in practice a plurality of these holders will be successively employed so that sets o f iins may be assembled upon their associated holderswhile one of the holders is present in the machine, there by enabling the machine to operate as rapidly as the holders are replaced and without stopping to refill the holder present on the In the broad aspect of this feature of my invention any suitable holder may be employed, and in the form shown it consists of the vertical back plate 28 having a horizontal web 29, and a front plate. 30 of less height than the back plate and lying below the plane of the lowest bank of spindles 20, as clearly shown in Figs. 2 and 7, the front and back plates being connected by any suitable means such as the headed bolts 31. The holder is provided with a series of comb-plates 32 extending across the Width of the machine and suitably spaced apart along the lengths of the bolts 31 by spacing washers or fillers 33. The co1nb-plates are approximately the height of the radiator fins 34 andthe intercostal spaces between the teeth or lingers of the combs are arranged in alinement with each other and so disposed with respect to the perforations 35 of the fins that these spaces and perforations are in alinement along the length of the'machine when these parts are assembled,

the spacing washers 33 providing suiiicient space between the comb-plates to receive the' radiator fins which in the present instance are rectangular copper plates of substantially the form shown in Figs. 4 and 5. The

back plate `28l is also made comb-shaped correspondingto the comb-plates 32.

In the holder the lingers of the plates 32 form spacing and holding members for the fins, being spaced apart at intervals in one direction to permit the tubes to pass between them, and also spaced apart at substantially right angles to said first direction to receive -slots between the fingers.

the fins betweenthem, the iin-spaces provided between the lingers being such that the lingers of each row engage the fins at each side of the openings in the fins, and the plates are secured together along their plane edges with their'ngers or projecting portions in alinement in both directions by means of the bolts and spacing washers. When the fins are in the holder their edges engage the side plates 25 whereby they are 75 alined in position with their openings in line with the passages between the lingers.

The web 29 of the iin-holder may be detachably connected with the fin-frame by means of the removable screw bolts 36, and the holder may be further held in place by means of an opposite pair of clamping plates 37 which may be detachbly vconnected by screws 38 to the side pieces 25 and/ adapted to overlie the `ends of the comb 35v plates and their associated fins as clearly shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 8 of the drawings.

When a number of tins 34 are assembled in position between the combs 32 of one of the holders, the corresponding openings 35 .90v are in alinement and register with the intercostal spaces of the combs,land when the holder thus equipped with its quota of fins is assembled upon the frame the openings 35 and the spaces of the combs are in alinement with the ends of the corresponding spindles 20 and their associated tubes 23, the spindles 20 being somewhat tapered at their ends as shown vin Fig. 7, and the perforations 35 of the vtins being somewhat flared 100 or bell shaped in the preferred method of practice. When the holder with its associated fins is locked in position upon'the frame, and the corresponding spindles are provided with tubes, suitable motion imarted to the truck 18 by means of its driving mechanism will cause the tubes to pass into or through thecorresponding perforations of the lins, the tubes moving freely through the intercostal spaces of the combs 11o 32 and the back plate 28 until the tubes are assembled in position upon their fins in substantially the relation shown in Fig. 9. After a set of tubesis inserted in their fins the spindles are withdrawn by retracting the 11.5 carrier 21, as by reversing the direction of rotation of shaft 13, and the fin holder may then be removed from the machine and the assembled ins and tubes comprising a radiator withdrawn simultaneously from the 12o lingers of the plates 32, the tubes passing laterally out through the open ends of the The holder composed of the connected front and back plates and the comb-plate provides means to rigidly support in ixed relation all the fins for a radiator, and also provides for simultaneously removing all the combs from between the fins and tubes of a complete radiator in one operation. 1S?z enable the While the machine is operating to assemble one set of parts, another holder may be supplied With its tins and another set of spindles upon another carrier may be supplied With tubes so that when the trst set is assembled a second set ot fins and tubes may be quickly placed in position upon the machine to repeat the assembling operation, this rotation of the parts being carried out with as many sets as may be necessary to machine to be run to its highest capacity.

The machine also provides for quick and accurate assemblage at one stroke of all the tubes and ns comprising a radiator, etc., and overcomes the friction resulting from the simultaneous assemblage of a plurality of closely fitting tubes and tins so that the parts are assembled in such intimate relation and frictional engagement that great solidity and permanence of union results.

The machine may be supported upon any suitable bench or table (not shown).

, Having described my invention, I claim:

1. In a device of the class described, a

'support for 'a plurality of t-ubes, a holder for a plurality of fins, and means to move one of the parts With relation to the other to assemble their associated tins on the tubes.

2. In a device of the class described, a carrier for a plurality of tubes, a holder for a plurality of tins, and means to move the carrier with relation to the holder to assemble their associated tins on the tubes.

3. In a device of the class described, a truck, a carrier for a plurality of tubes detachably mounted on the truck, a holder for a plurality of tins, and means to move the truck with relation to the holder to assemble their associated fins on the tubes.

4. In a device of the class described, a bed plate, a truck movable thereon, a spindle-carrier on the truck, a fin-frame on the bed plate, and a fin-holder on the frame comprising a series of 'spaced comb-plates.

5. In a device of the class described, a bed plate, a truck movable thereon, a detachable spindle-carrier on the truck, a fin-trame on the bed plate, and a detachable tin-holder on the frame comprising a f series of spaced comb-plates.

6. In a device of the class described, a bed plate, a truck movable thereon, a detachable spindle-carrier on the truck, a linframe on the bed plate, and a detachable iin-holder on the frame comprising a series of comb-plates, a series of washers and bolts on which the washers and plates are alternately mounted.

7. In a device of the class described, a tube-support, means to detachably mount a bank ot' tubes thereon, a fin frame, means to detachably mount a bank of tins thereon, and'means to move one of the parts with bed plate, a truck thereon, a spindle carrier Y detachably mounted on the truck, a tinframe on the bed plate, a fin-holder detachably mounted on the frame, a screw rod on the truck, a worm on the plate, and a multiple Worm-wheel cooperating with the Worm and screw rod to move the truck to assemble the associated tubes in the tins.

10. In a device of the class described, a support for a plurality of tubes, a holder for radiator fins, comprising a frame and a plurality of rows of spacing and holding members, said members being spaced apart at intervals in one direction to permit the tubes to pass therebetween and spaced apart at substantially right angles to said direction to receive fins therebetween, and means for alining the rows of members in both direct-ions on the frame, and means to move one of the parts to assemble their associated tins on the tubes.

l1. In a device of the class described` a support for a. plurality of tubes, a holder for radiator fins comprising a series of plates each having a row of lingers spaced apart at regular intervals to permit the tubes to pass therebetween substantially at a right angle to the plane of the plates, spacing members between the plates to permit insertion of tins between the rows of lingers, means for alining the lingers of the plates, means for alining the tins, and means to move one of the parts to assemble the tubes in the fins.

12. In a device of the class described, a support for a plurality of tubes, a holder for radiator fins having openings to receive the tubes 'comprising a series of parallel plates each having a. row of lingers projecting from one edge of the plate, said lingers being in the plane of the plate and spaced apartat regular intervals to ali'ord passages therebetween for the tubes, spacing members between the plates, means for alining the lingers of the plates, means for securing the plates and spacing members to each other, means for alining the tins with their openings in line with the passages between the fingers, and means to move one of the parts to assemble the tubes in the openings of the fins.

13. In a device of the class described, a support for a plurality of tubes, a holder for radiator tins having openings at regular intervals, spacing and holding members a1'- for radiator fins comprising a series of par-' ranged in parallel rows and spaced apart in one direction to form passages therebet-ween at intervals to permit the tubes to pass therethrough and spaced apart at substantially right angles to said direction to receive the lins therebetween, means for rigidly supporting said members in fixed relation and for simultaneously7 removing the same from between the fins and tubes, an adjusting device to engage the ends of the fins and adjust the same with their openings in alinement with the passages and guide openings, and means to move one of the parts to assemble the tins on the tubes.

14. In a device of the class described, a support for a plurality of tubes, a holder for radiator fins having openings, comprising a support and a series of rows of fingers attached at one end to said support and extending laterally therefrom across ns placed between said rows of fingers with the fingers of each row engaging said fins at each side of the openings tp support and space the fins one from another, and means to move one of the parts to assemble the tubes in the openings of the fins.

15. In a device ofthe class described, a support for a plurality of tubes, a holder for radiator fins comprising a series of parallel plates formed with slots extending inward from one edge forming spacing fingers to extend between adjacent fins and space t-he same one from another, means for securing said plates together along their int-egral edge, and means to move one of the parts to assemble the tubes in the fins.

16. In a device of the class described, a support for a plurality of tubes, a holder allel plates formed with fingers along one edge between which fingers of adjacent plates the fins are adapted to be placed, washers between the plates to space the fingers of one plate from those of the next plate, and means for securing the plates to.- gether with the washers between, and means to move one of the parts to assemble the fins on the tubes.

1T'. In a device of the class described, a support for a plurality of tubes. a holder for radiator fins comprising a series of parallel plates each slotted inward from one edge to form a series of fingers, washers between the plates at their` opposite edge, and

. bolts extending through the plates and washers to secure the plates together, and means to move one of the parts to assemble the fins on the tubes.

18. An apparatus for assembling fins and tubes comprising a series of rows of members adapted to be projected between the series of perforated fins to support and space the same with the perforations in alinement with the spaces between the members of each row, a frame for holding said members,

and means for forcing tubesthrough the perforations in the series of fins in a single operation.

19. An apparatus for assemblinga series of perforated fins upon tubes comprising a holder adapted to receive and hold a series of fins in spaced relation with their perforations in alinementand supporting said fins adjacent to each perforation, means for holding a series of tubes in alinement with said alined perforations, and a reciprocable plunger to engage the tubes and force the same through the perforations in the fins l 1n a single operation.

20. An apparatus for assembling fins and tubes comprising a machine frame, a reciprocable plunger carried by said frame, a removable holder adapted to be placed within the frame in alinement with said plunger adapted to hold a series of fins in spaced relation, and means for actuating the plunger to force tubes through the series of fins in a single movement-of said plunger.

21. An apparatus for assembling a series of radiator iins and tubes comprising a machine frame, a removable frame adapted to be supported by the machine frame, means "within said removable frame for spacing a series of fins one from another, and means cn the machine frame fo-r forcing a series of tubes through said fins while held within said removable frame in alinement with said means.

22. An apparatus for assembling a series of radiator fins and tubes comprising a machine frame, a removable frame for carrying said tubes, a second removable frame adapted to be held in the machine frame in alinement with the other removable framev and adapted to hold a series of'fins in alinement with said tubes and spaced apart, and means on the machine frame for forcing the tubes through the fins.

23. In a device of the class described, a support sustaining a plurality of tubes against buckling, a holder for perforated radiator fins comprising a series of plates each having a row of ngers spaced apart at regular intervals to permit the tubes to pass therebetween substantially at 'a right angle to the plane of the plates, spacing members between the plates to permit insertions of fins between the rows of lingers, and means to simultaneously move the tubes through perforations of the fins.

24. In a device of the class described, a support sustaining a plurality of tubes against buckling, a holder for radiator fins having openings to receive the tubes comprising a series of parallel plates each having a row of lingers projecting from one edge of the plate and spaced apart at regular intervals to afford passages therebetween for the tubes, spacing members between the plates, means for alining the iingers of the plates, means for alining the fins with their openings in line with the passages` between .the lingers, and means to simultaneously move the tubes through the openings in the tins.

25. In a device of the class described, a support sustaining a plurality of` tubes against buckling, a holder for radiator 'ins having openings at regular intervals, spac` ing and holding members arranged 1n parallel rows and spaced apart in one direction to form passages therebetween at intervals to permit the tubes to pass therethrough and spaced apart at substantially right angles to said direction to receive the tins therebetween, means for rigidly supporting said members in fixed relation and for simultaneously removing the same from between A v the ns'and tubes, and means to simultaneously move the tubes through the openings in the ns.

26. In a device of the class described, a support sustaining a plurality of tubes against buckling, a holder for radiator fins having openingscomprising a support and a series of rows of fingers attached at one end to said support and extending laterally therefrom acrossv tins placed between said rows of fingers with the lingers of each row engaging said Ens at each side of the openings to support and space the fins one from another, and means to simultaneously move the tubes through the openings in the fins.

27; In a device of the class described, a support sustaining a plurality of tubes against buckling, a holder for radiator fins having openings comprising a series of parallel plates formed with slots extending inward from one edge forming fingers to eX- tend between adjacent fins and space the same one from another, means for securing said plates together along their integral edge, and means to simultaneously move the tubes through the openings in the ns to assemble the tubes and fins in frictional engagement.

ln testimony whereof l ax my signature in presence of two witnesses. vWILLllArM DIETE. Witnesses:

GEORGE R. HARBAUGH, J. McRoBERTs.

soi 

